Wisconsin Gold Star List

This extensive list of casualties from Wisconsin provides details of the hometown, age, unit, location of death, and cause of death, for those soldiers, sailors, marines, and nurses who all gave their life in World War 1.

The first installment of source material used in the compilation of the data here presented was supplied by the War Department at Washington, which gathered information from original official reports and records. This material comprised lists-necessarily imperfect-of officers and enlisted men from Wisconsin who died while serving with the American Expeditionary Force during the World War. A letter from the Adjutant General of the Army to the Adjutant General of Wisconsin which accompanied a set of these lists requested that they be checked against casualty cards previously transmitted, and that discrepancies noted be reported. This course was carefully followed in the office of the Adjutant General of Wisconsin, which collated the data received from Washington with statistics of its own relating to Wisconsin soldiers, and constructed a card index that was of value to the Service Recognition Board in administering the Wisconsin bonus law, and has afforded great help in the prosecution of the present task.

In the lists from Washington the soldiers’ names are arranged with reference to the branch of the service to which respective individuals belonged, whether Regular Army, National Guard, Enlisted Reserve Corps, or National Army; and the National Army list is subdivided to show whether entry was by enlistment or induction. In the card-index roster at the office of the Adjutant General of Wisconsin the names are grouped by counties. A card index showing the names of applicants for the Wisconsin bonus, and the action on such applications taken by the Board in each case, has also aided the preparation of the present list, which has been compared with numerous honor rolls made up by patriotic associations, and with other local compilations.

At the office of the Adjutant General of Wisconsin there are separate official returns from Washington relating to the Marine Corps, to sailors, and to nurses who served in the war. These, it would appear, approximate completeness less nearly than those relating to the Army, but full use has been made of the information which they contain bearing on the subject of this list.

Many men from Wisconsin who lost their lives in the World War were not in the service of the United States, or not identified as from Wisconsin. Some of these were enrolled in Canadian units or in the service of Great Britain or France. There were numerous instances of residents of Wisconsin with Polish or Italian antecedents enlisting in the Polish Legion or the Italian Army. Men from Wisconsin who were in other states of the Union when the army was raised frequently enlisted or were drafted as from the localities where they happened to be at the time. The names of the men in these various categories rarely or never appear in this list. Neither do those of men who were in the service and were discharged at different times after the cessation of hostilities, but who have died since.

While the compilation of the list here presented has been to a large extent merely a matter of selection and transcription, there have arisen instances in which the gathering of data involved research and considerable expenditure of time. It was not always easy to procure reliable information pertaining to soldiers who during the war had become separated from the units with which they entered the service. Many a man remembered by comrades as having been seen badly wounded, on his way to a hospital, and supposed to have perished, lived to return to the front with another organization, performing valiant service, and coming home in good physical condition ; while many a man missing from his company without arousing serious misgivings met death under circumstances that until long afterward prevented knowledge of the fact from reaching those by whom he was known.

Corporal Paul Harder, of the 127th Infantry, believed to have died of wounds, was so reported in the History of the Thirty-Second Division compiled by its officers, but is still living at Fort Atkinson. Other missing men mourned as dead were found to have been held in German prisons and subsequently released. On the other hand, more than two hundred bodies of American soldiers were found in recesses of the Argonne Forest as long as two years after the war. There always will remain mystery as to some whose names slipped out of the records.

At Cantigny, in May, 1918, Lieutenant Oliver Julian Kendall advanced with a scouting party to investigate the cause of strange noises. Later he was reported missing in action, and after the war his grave was discovered by workers for the Red Cross, inquiry revealing that he had been captured by the enemy and called upon to furnish information which he steadfastly withheld, whereupon he was shot as a spy. By his refusal to comply with the demands Of his captors, Lieutenant Kendall was greatly helpful to the success Of the first All-American drive, for which reason he has been designated the Nathan Hale Of the World War. A resident Of Fond du Lac while employed in civil engineering work for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, he is not listed with Wisconsin’s soldiers, because he entered the service from another state. His story is cited as illustrative Of One of the various ways in which soldiers’ names that might be looked for have escaped inclusion in the record.

Sergeant Roy F. Lee, Headquarters Company, Tenth Field Artillery, enlisted at Fond du Lac. He participated in the fighting at the Second Marne, at St. Mihiel, and On the Meuse. February 11, 1919, he died Of pneumonia. Later his comrades discovered that the name under which they had known him was assumed-that in reality he was Roy Puffer, and that previous to the war he had been a school teacher at Sturgeon Bay.

Private Frank John Schmidt, Twenty-Eighth Infantry, was killed in action, May 21, 1918. After the war his bonus was paid to his mother, living in Milwaukee, his Old home, and known not as Mrs. Schmidt, but as Mrs. Dobrovnik. The name Of the dead soldier in reality was Paul Dobrovnik, but at times he called himself Frank Dobrovnik, and he had taken the name Of Frank Smith when he entered the army.

Captain A. E. Gaartz, stated by the Milwaukee newspapers to be the highest-ranking Officer from that city killed in the World War, was long identified with TOmah, and in the lists made up at that place is enrolled as One Of MOnrOe County’s soldier dead. His remains repose in a Milwaukee cemetery, and in the present list his name will be found in the section devoted to Milwaukee County. This does not settle the question as to his legal residence, but it avoids duplication.

Almost innumerable instances Occurred in which men were claimed by more than One locality in Wisconsin. In compiling this list, the aim has been to overlook none and to avoid entering any name more than Once, though probably in neither Of these efforts has it been possible to achieve perfection.

Topics:

Collection:

Gregory, John Goadby. Wisconsin's gold star list; soldiers, sailors, marines, and nurses from the Badger state who died in the federal service during the world war. State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1925.